TL;DR: The offense had lots of smoke but no fire, the bullpen faltered late, and the Rangers decisively swept the two-game set.
The D-Backs’ offense sputtered once again as they created plenty of traffic, outhit their opponents, and took great at-bats against journeyman Dane Dunning. Unfortunately, that stumble once again doomed an unspectacular start from Ryne Nelson just as it did for Brandon Pfaadt last night. They even managed to squander Corbin Carroll’s first multihit game in two-plus weeks and yet another solid day at the plate for Joc Pederson who has solidified himself as an everyday starter and an extremely valuable part of the lineup.
Ironically, the game started very promisingly: Nelson didn’t allow a baserunner through the first two innings and the offense created scoring opportunities in two out of the first three innings. In the first, Pederson got the first of his two walks on the afternoon and advanced to third on a Christian Walker single, but Lourdes Gurriel Jr stranded both runners with a harmless flyout. Similarly, in the first half of the third, Carroll encouragingly laced a cutter into right field and hustled into second right in the face of Adolis Garcia. After a Ketel Marte groundout, they managed to load the bases on consecutive walks from Pederson and Walker for Gurriel Jr who once again stranded the runners and whose hot streak to begin the year is a foggy memory.
In the home half of the third, Wyatt Langford led off with a single and then came around to score off a deep double from Jonah Heim to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. The Rangers built another threat in their half of the fourth off a leadoff walk from Garcia and a Leody Taveras single that absolutely ate up Marte and advanced Garcia to third. Unsurprisingly, situational hitting is integral to a winning formula and the Rangers once again outperformed the D-Backs as the Rangers traded two outs for a run on a Nathaniel Lowe double play ball for a 2-0 lead. Nelson made one final mistake in the fifth when he challenged Corey Seager with a well-placed cutter that may not have even been a strike that instead ended up in the right field bleachers that extended their lead to 4-0.
Torey Lovullo elected to have Logan Allen handle the ninth after Bryce Jarvis pitched a clean eighth and he had a rough outing: a pair of walks and a hit translated into two more tack on runs for a 6-0 lead heading into the ninth. The D-Backs managed to find some life in their bats and rallied to prevent a shutout in the ninth for the 6-1 final, but a double play from Marte extinguished the rally before it got properly started. It was just one more frustration and missed opportunity in an afternoon filled with both.
It’s hard to believe that one short week ago this team was flying high after taking two out of three from the mighty Dodgers in LA with a crisp 6-0 shutout including besting the staff ace Tyler Glasnow. Since then, the D-Backs have gone 1-4 despite a home series against a dismal Marlins team and a road series against the team that crushed their hopes in the World Series just over six months ago. They have looked lost at times both at the plate and on the mound – though thankfully less lost in the field. It’s difficult to keep the “doomerism” attitude from taking over as the team continues to spin its wheels. It’s even more difficult to watch a roster underperform so drastically from the expectations placed on them at the beginning of the season. Whether it’s a World Series’ hangover, overexposure from the media, a spate of injuries, or something else entirely, this team feels directionless and without a clear identity. There’s lots of baseball left to play. We’ve barely reached the 30% mark in the season and despite their mediocre and inconsistent play, the D-Backs are still only a handful of games from a wild card spot where we all know anything can happen. But unless they can find the kind of mental and emotional sharpness they displayed so consistently last year, I have little hope of reaching even that modest goal now.
